Constant vigilance

Wordle 711 3/6

🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Got the kid to school uneventfully. 

The title of the post is a quote from a book the kid is reading these days, and is apparently what it takes for me to be productive. I got to the bare minimum of my to-do list at work, i.e. two sort of urgent items, or three depending how you count them. Plus attending four meetings, two of which required actual thought and interaction. What I didn't get to was at least four less urgent items on my work to-do list plus three personal tasks.

I got the kid and T. at school on time for swim class. While they were in there, I went for a walk, mostly just to get some kind of exercise for the day. In the process I explored the school's other campus. I hadn't realized until yesterday just how close it was to the swimming pool where we have lessons.

Dinner was a stir-fry, finishing off leftovers from the Thai place, a mixed vegetables bag we bought at Costco and didn't like much, and the chicken from Saturday. How resourceful of us.

In the evening I did my physical therapy, maybe not totally, but more thoroughly than I've done at home in weeks. I was motivated mostly by how I really, really need to resume some kind of exercise.

Time to clean kitchen: 10:20. On the one hand, that's roughly as early as possible; on the other hand, that was the last minute before over an hour of meetings. I'm close to stopping tracking this.

Shopping and unplanned socializing in the rain

Wordle 710 5/6

⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Scrambled eggs and home fries for brunch yesterday. 

In the mid-morning we walked out for a few errands. Before we got off the block we ran into a friend of the kid's, and the kid asked if she wanted to come and she agreed, so she had company for this. First we split up, T. went to the CVS on H St., and I took the kids to a playground. Coincidentally we ran into another friend from school there, so I chatted with the mom while the three of them played together, more or less. 

T. joined us around when the third girl had to go. Then the four of us went to REI. I got new sandals. T. got shoes and browsed lots of stuff on sale but eventually was persuaded we didn't need it. The kids hid from and spied on us.

On the way home it rained. After we all got showered and changed and the kid cleaned her room and had a nice long guitar practice, that friend came over again. 

Dinner was pasta and broccoli. Easy enough. 

Depressed and kind of tired last night and this morning. I'm glad we didn't schedule anything in particular this weekend, but we still kept more than busy enough. I'm also overdue for exercise. A bit sore since Saturday, trying to play it safe, in addition to the plantar fasciitis my knee is acting up, and I'm getting frustrated with it all. It didn't help that I got up around 5 and I'm not sure I actually got back to sleep. Mild to moderate sleep issues are so common as to not be worth trying to track. 

Finally, this morning the kid complained that we missed an event over the weekend for the martial arts class she just started. Not only did we have little idea just how important this is for her, did she not notice we were busy? Did she forget what we were doing instead? Fuck, it's never enough! I'm exaggerating here, I'm not mad at her for being mad at me, but I am explaining why an unstructured three-day weekend wasn't particularly relaxing.

Shopping and seeing friends

Wordle 709 5/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we had pancakes and bacon. 

Later in the morning we went to Costco. We had a long list. Then we stopped by Lowes because T. had some organizing ideas, but they didn't have what she wanted, and then 5 Below, because the kid needed something. (She had no idea what when we walked in there. It turned out to be a bubble wand.)

After that, home briefly for lunch. Then we drove to visit friends in Reston. They've been going through some tough times, and we also helped with some heavy lifting. Look at me, being a handyman.

Dinner in Arlington at a Thai place we like with another friend.

Overall, not as tiring as the day before, but still busy.

I regret exercise

Wordle 708 4/6

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I started the day with jogging. A little further than Tuesday or Thursday. Still not up to the usual distance from a year ago, let alone exceeding it, but maybe not too much longer.

Breakfast was unusually simple, toast and fried eggs, because we had morning plans. It was hard for T. to get ready because the kid was being a maniac, annoying her, but we made it on time or close enough. We dropped her off at a friend's birthday party, at a theater for a private screening of The Little Mermaid, and then T. and I walked a few blocks to a Belgian-style place for brunch. Good beer and food, but the walking was already more than I'd normally like, so soon after the jogging... 

After that, home for just a bit, and then we met another friend of the kid's at the park, and her mother. Haven't seen them in a while. It was good to catch up.

All five of us walked to Calypso for ice cream. I wish we had biked. 

After that another friend of the kid's came over for dinner. Dinner was chicken with the caper sauce and Brussels sprouts. How fancy.

By the time the kid was in bed, we were exhausted.

Multiple Friday reports

Wordle 707 6/6

🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday the kid felt okay, and a covid test was negative, so I took her to school.

It was the biweekly report day at work, so that's always busy. The last of the reports came in earlier than usual, which is always nice. In addition I worked on that general report on the document update effort, and a few other minor things. I also finished that school board application.

I played only about half an hour of Warcraft over the course of the day. I'm not saying that to brag or complain, just to say how hard I was working. It's busy these days and my self-discipline is better than I would have expected.

Physical therapy in the afternoon. By the time I was home, T. was too. She had an easy day at work, the last day before a long weekend. We relaxed for a bit, then went to get the kid.

Gymnastics went well. At first there was a visitors' segment, where the kids put on a little demonstration for us. During the normal class T. and I went to a nearby bar for drinks. On the way home we gave some friends/classmates/neighbors a ride home because there was confusion about their plans. Dinner was pizza.

Time to clean kitchen: noon. Leftovers for lunch and genuinely busy.

Work and parenting and bike practice

Wordle 706 4/6

⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I went jogging first thing. Basically the same as Tuesday but slightly hillier. Good for me. And I want to work in some pun or something about how the day was all downhill from there...

The kid was sick. Headache, sore throat, stuff like that. Nothing concerning but couldn't send her to school. (I just realized, we never even gave her a covid test. Things really are back to normal! We should this morning just in case they ask to see it, though.) I work from home, so I tried to have as normal a day as possible.

I probably should have taken the day off on principle. I figured I didn't have too many meetings or immediate deadlines and I don't get too much paid leave, I could just monitor things and it would probably be OK. But among other problems with that, I don't have immediate deadlines but I do have some fairly soon. (A nonstandard document due today, which won't be hard but still involved some emails and minor edits yesterday, and a report on the documentation update effort due Tuesday or today, which requires both work to put together and thought about how to put together to begin with. Plus some follow-ups on stuff earlier in the week with no definite deadline but doing it any later would have been conspicuous.) Doing that with an antsy kid around was hard.

In the morning it was OK. I had a morning meeting and she entertained herself fine. She got in her TV time and hit her iPad time limit then. In the later morning we did a project from a science kit she had. It was fun but messy, of course. 

I didn't want to take her to the park near our house because of the nearby school, so instead I took her to the park a little farther away. I asked her if she wanted to bike there and she agreed. It didn't go well. Her biking is still a painstaking process requiring a lot of help from me. This wasn't the very first attempt since the lesson, but was definitely the longest and most serious, and she hasn't magically improved in the meantime. She had fun at the actual park, but not getting there or back.

T. got home about half an hour after we did. Both the girls took separate naps in the afternoon. In hindsight, maybe the kid's grumpiness while biking was partly because she actually was sick, I don't know. I considered doing the same, but couldn't relax. I cooked something simpler than originally planned, an improvised stir-fry, but we had to eat something and I didn't want takeout. 

I put the kid to bed. She was asleep by 8:45 or so. I was asleep by 9:15.

Time to clean kitchen: 11ish. Good for fucking me.

Making up for the day before

Wordle 705 4/6

🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Didn't go jogging yesterday, partly because I was busy, partly because I was still sore from the day before. The day before wasn't much but it was still a lot more than I had done in months. Fitness is a never-ending battle.

Like I said, I was busy. In addition to one task I hadn't got around to for several days, and almost all the follow-ups from the meeting yesterday, I also had two meetings yesterday morning, one of which had a bunch of follow-ups itself, and I got to them all yesterday or at least got them all started. Good for me. I played a little Warcraft, but managed to resist anything too absorbing or time-consuming. I also did a little non-standard, smelly cleaning in the kitchen.

In the late afternoon, just when I was thinking I really had to get going if I wanted to go grocery shopping so we'd have something for dinner, I got a text. The neighbor was having an ice cream cake delivered and of course had to get it inside right away. But I had to go shopping for dinner for us at some point, and it would be miserable to do it by car during rush hour... ugh. It worked out, I had 10+ minutes to spare before the package actually came, but I dithered and then walked faster than I would have otherwise and probably bought less.

After that, a little more work, and then I met T. and we both got the kid to her music lesson. It went fine.

When we got home, we suggested the kid play with a friend, but she said she wanted to read. Fine, she doesn't have to be social. But I soon discovered her iPad out and a YouTube video cued up about differences between Harry Potter books and movies. I don't like how she's cheating on reading the books, so to speak, and I really don't like the dishonesty, so we took the iPad away and finally got around to setting up parental controls later that day. But I relented (or just figured that that was adequate punishment and didn't want to deal with her whining) and took her to the park while part of dinner was in the oven.

Dinner was pork chops and cauliflower.

Time to clean kitchen: noon. Not procrastination, all work or close enough.

Procrastination but productive anyway

Wordle 704 4/6

 

⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨

⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩

⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Went jogging first thing yesterday morning. Good for me. 2 miles in 21 minutes. I'm out of practice but anything is better than nothing. 

Got the kid to school uneventfully. 

Work was OK. I had planned to have the usual team meeting on 10 AM Tuesday and then get to a longish list of personal chores/tasks, but I had forgotten that the team meeting had been moved to 11:30, with another meeting at 11. They were both productive enough. So I put off the personal to-do list. I got at least started on all the items on it in the end. In the meantime I played Warcraft. Tuesday, right?

I got to several parts of my personal to-do list over the afternoon, and a few parts of my work to-do list, but mostly put the work list off until today. Ugh.

I met T. at the school and we went to swim class. It went well enough. 

Dinner was fried rice from a bag while we listened to a school meeting. Despite the ease of dinner, the evening was stressful. Partly because of the meeting, partly because it was late, partly because T. wanted the kid to practice her guitar, the kid was opposed, and I couldn't care less considering how busy we have been lately. The kid won.

Time to clean kitchen: 10:45. At the last minute before those two work meetings. Could have been worse but under the circumstances I feel it should have been better.

Seeing a movie on impulse

Wordle 703 4/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Uneventful morning yesterday, other than the usual difficulties getting the kid dressed. Doesn't want to wear her school shirt, so we break down and and let her wear something else, but then she can't find the shirt that goes with the pants she wants...

Productive at work. T.'s presence plus the fact that I was on my work computer probably both helped. 

T. and I talked throughout the morning about plans for upcoming events and stuff. One of us mentioned in passing that we'd like to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but we probably won't have time before mid- to late-June, and it probably won't be in theaters by then. (It's not just 3 hours free, it's also a babysitter, and we wouldn't want to do it on a week when we already have 4 other things going on, so...) On a whim I checked the theater near us. They have showings four afternoons this week. T. and I checked our calendars. The only day that worked for her was yesterday. We checked with the parents of a friend of the kid and confirmed that they could pick our kid up after school, because the movie would end near the last minute, and they could.

So we logged out of work just a little earlier than usual, drove over there to get to the school as quickly as possible afterwards, and saw the movie. It was fun. A comic book purist might have been bothered by the depiction of Adam Warlock, his depiction here was very different from in the comics, but that would be silly. 

After that, straight to the school. The kid was having fun. I was a little embarrassed to explain exactly why we were late but it wasn't a problem. 

T. took the kid to the park while I made dinner. It was pasta and asparagus. Not my finest work and also kind of small but they were fine. 

In the evening, as usual, we watched TV and I played Warcraft. After TV was over (one episode of Shadow and Bone), I raided in a pickup group. After several attempts, we killed the final boss of the current raid on Normal difficulty. Cool. Not all that big a deal, it's only Normal, but it's faster than usual for me. Now on to harder stuff...

Time to clean kitchen: 10 AM, I think. T. and I both did some.

A pro forma post

Wordle 702 5/6

 

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜

⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜

🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Not much to say today, since yesterday's post basically covered two days.

There was lots to unpack. Normally some would go to the basement and some would go upstairs, but we have another camping trip in two weeks, so I put everything that we'll need then in one place, upstairs. 

We did a lot of laundry. We had done one load before we left Saturday, so that left us with a lot of the usual stuff to take care of. 

Dinner was dumplings. Easy and boring, but the banquet was a fairly good-sized meal, at least for me.

The kid had trouble getting to sleep, despite how tired she definitely was. Hope it doesn't make this morning harder than usual. 

Girl Scout camping and Cub Scouts banquet

Wordle 701 5/6

 

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜

⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜

🟨🟨🟩🟨⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Leisurely pancake brunch yesterday. We spent the morning getting ready for camping, interrupted slightly by a trip to the farmer's market and the kid insisting on going to the playground jungle gym. Weird. 

Went to the Girl Scouts camping trip around 1. It was fine. There was less structure to it than we would have expected based on how Cub Scouts trips go but I'm not complaining. We provided dessert per a recipe T. looked up and otherwise just hung out.

Stuff we forgot: a long-sleeved top for the kid and pajamas for T. We also brought more than we needed. People specifically asked to borrow our sleeping bag and tent, and in general we thought this group was less prepared or experienced for camping than the friends we went with two weeks ago or the Scouts, so we brought everything we thought we might possibly be needed. It turns out we didn't. The campsite had cabins, they were in good condition, and the kids were happy to share. (Not a surprise but not something we wanted to plan on.) T. and I wound up having a cabin to ourselves, so our own tent didn't even get used.

This morning, a leisurely breakfast with the Girl Scouts. We went straight from their closing ceremony to a Scouts BSA event, the annual banquet. It was fun. We got home right around 4 and spent a lot of time unpacking and getting cleaned up.

A golf bag and bananas

Wordle 700 5/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday before anyone else was up, I got started on the most urgent of the three items on my to-do list. Good for me. After dropping the kid off at school, I picked up a golf club bad we won at the auction fundraiser last week. My dad will appreciate it when we can finally get it to him, I guess.

At work in the morning I polished off that urgent item despite some problems with how the file was set up. It's not completely done, but it's in a good place. I also finished the second of the three items and was pretty thorough about it. Good for me. In the early afternoon, follow-ups on a couple other things at work, and then biking across town to physical therapy. On the way home, a little shopping for bananas for a camping treat T. is planning at the Girl Scout event this weekend.

If all this productivity sounds too good to be true, like something must have fallen through, that's true: yoga. I spent a few minutes reading about exercise three and my eyes glazed over and I went back to Warcraft. I'll have to either get started at the perfect time with maximum executive function and nothing else going on, or else give up on this for a while and pursue other fitness routines. Like jogging, maybe. My physical therapist said in passing that I could restart if I want. 

Anyways, after getting home, a little more work, and then I went to get the kid and T. for gymnastics. Afterwards we met a friend of hers for dinner at a burger place nearby. 

Time to clean kitchen: 

10:30.

Going down rabbit holes

Wordle 699 5/6

⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I biked the kid to school uneventfully yesterday.

Work was busy, and kind of weird. A meeting I took notes at in the morning - that's routine. Three team documentation review meetings after that. The second and third went well, as we would have expected. The first, we would have expected to go badly simply because of how behind they are, but it was even worse than that. There was a disagreement or misunderstanding about the basic plan for this stuff. 

I went down a long rabbit hole exploring how they have things set up and spent hours on it beyond what I had planned. It's messy and dumb and confusing... but it's mostly not our problem. It was worth the time to figure that out, but maybe not yesterday afternoon specifically. It's weird to be so obsessive about something that's not fun, except to the extent that researching badly-sourced documents is like playing detective.

I went to pick up my bike from the shop around 5, which felt like the last minute, and after getting home, drove to get T. and the kid. I was later than usual but T. had already signed her out and was supervising her playing with friends in the playground, so it wasn't a problem.

Dinner was chicken, the easy air fryer recipe, and peas. While cooking and eating we listened in on a school board event. There's some concerning stuff there.

Didn't sleep well last night. I woke up around 1:30, noticed snoring, and wanted to see how the couch would be. It wasn't as good as I expected.

When I got up this morning I once again had problems logging in on my work computer. I think I need to go out and buy a new card reader.

Minutiae

"Time to clean kitchen" feels like a measure of how my day goes on weekdays, how productive and responsible I am. Every day I need to clean the kitchen. If nothing else, there's the coffee pot and the kid's unique, not-dishwasher-safe cereal bowl to clean, and there's almost always more, like dishes left over from the night before. Ideally I feel like I "should" clean the kitchen as early as 10, as soon as the coffee pot has cooled, but if I have leftovers for lunch and there's Tupperware to clean then doing it all after lunch isn't too irresponsible. If I do it too late and I'm not legitimately busy or productive, it's procrastination for absolutely no reason.

When did I actually do it, and why?

• Yesterday it wasn't until 4-4:30. I wasn't playing Warcraft much; I was mostly just sucked into the documentation confusion at work. Not sure how laudable that was.
  
• The day before it was probably between noon and 1 PM - not too early but definitely before those afternoon errands.
• The day before that it was around 4 or so, but there's absolutely no good reason for it, I just put it off as late as possible. 
• The day before that was Monday. T. did it before noon if I remember correctly, but I don't feel too bad about that considering that I was legitimately busy and productive.

I don't want to think too much about this, both because any benchmark can be gamed and because it's fucking stupid back to front, but it seemed kind of interesting right around when I did it yesterday.

On the manic side?

Wordle 698 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I felt bad about the day before, so before anyone else got up I sent two emails, closing out two to-do list items. Good for me. There are two more I wish I had closed or at least got started on after getting back from dropping off the kid, but the day was busy...

One training in the morning, more relevant than the last one but still not all that great. One meeting about a team's documentation after it, and it was adequately productive. In the early afternoon I took my bike to the shop to get serviced, as scheduled. I picked the kid and T. up early at school because the kid had a dentist's appointment. It was scary and painful, in addition to the usual checkup we got her the recommended sealant, but we got the essentials done.

After that, ice cream as a reward. Kind of contrary to the spirit of going to the dentist but who cares. Then she got to play on the nearby playground a bit. Then a little grocery shopping. Then we split up: T. to a political event, the kid and I home for half an hour or so. Then I took her to her guitar lesson. It went OK.

Dinner was tortellini and green beans.

To summarize, a good day. Maybe not in terms of calorie intake - in addition to my own ice cream I had some of the kid's when she couldn't finish, plus the usual cookie, plus a cookie T. brought back from her event - but in every other respect. Work maybe could have been more productive but was definitely better than the day before. I even got adequate exercise, according to my app, just running all those errands. "Manic" is overstating it and I shouldn't pathologize myself to that extent but the swing is notable. Was it as simple as getting an early start on some easy-to-accomplish stuff?

Bleh

Wordle 697 4/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Started the day with yoga yesterday. Exercise two, day nine. Time to move on, but I'm not trying to do exercise three first thing today because it looks complicated. 

Biking the kid to school was uneventful. The actual problems in my meetings at work weren't my fault. I resolved the issue with logging in to work on my personal computer. 

Aaaaand that's all the good stuff I can say. Those two meetings had problems, the first was a training that turned out to be irrelevant to us and the second was a meeting with a team about their documentation that they don't show up for until very late and weren't prepared when they did. We may even have inadvertently brought the issue to management attention and not in a good way because they had management in the room on speaker phone when they took the call, but hey, at least it's not my fault.

Beyond that, I just got distressingly little done. Working on my personal computer again made Warcraft a tiny bit easier but the real problem, the main problem, was simply low executive functioning. I'm not sure what but I really need to make some kind of changes. I didn't even get any exercise - biking the kid to school on the ebike is inadequate, and yoga may be good in other ways or for other things but doesn't get the heart rate up.

Swimming class for the kid was cancelled because the teacher got in a bike accident. Dinner was a stir-fry anyway, partly because we let the kid play late at school, partly because we'd have to have it at some point this week, partly because I was lazy.

Paying the price of procrastination

Wordle 696 5/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I did the yoga first thing. Good for me. Exercise two, day eight. I got the kid to school uneventfully, even though she was short on sleep, and did a little grocery shopping. 

It was T.'s one day a week at home, so I had company. And I had put off a number of tasks from last week, including actually resolving a problem with accessing my work network on my personal computer, so with someone else sharing the table with me I did it all on my work computer. Good for me for reducing procrastination. I finished one task and got meaningful starts on others. I even had a meeting not originally planned, because I realized at the last minute that tomorrow wouldn't work, and it was productive. My main form of procrastination was Unfogged, which is social and therapeutic, i.e. probably better for me than games. I even got stuff done with/for the parents group of the kid's school online.

I didn't, however, fix the issue with my personal computer, so I'll be at least starting tomorrow with two computers going... oh well.

In the early after noon I biked to the physical therapy office to get the sunglasses I had left there Friday. I was relieved they had them; a phone call this morning was concerning, but they were easy to find once I looked. On the way home, a little more shopping.

Getting the kid was uneventful. We let her play with friends near the school a little longer than usual. On the way home, a stop by a friend's house to drop off cards and flowers because they just had a baby.

Dinner was beef tips and salad. Easy and fast.

Mother's Day

Wordle 695 4/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I slept until 7:20 - later than usual but far from enough, considering the night before. I played a little Warcraft as usual in the morning, as normal for a weekend, but also did a lot of cleaning, both on general Mother's Day principles and because we had a friend coming over for brunch. I left around 9 to get the kid. It was a long wait for a bus but we had left our car there (we were prepared to cut loose the night before! I wish we had!) so I wound up walking the 1.4 miles. Good for me. 

Brunch was pancakes and bacon. I cleaned while the ladies visited. Then I took the kid to the park. A friend soon joined her. They wound up spending about three hours together, in the park near our house, in our house, at a park farther away with swings and bigger playground equipment, and getting ice cream after all that. Fun and good exercise for them and incidentally some quiet time for the moms.

The only chores we made the kid do were cleaning her room and playing a little music. Not too bad. 

For dinner we went to Bistrot Du Coin. Feels fancy because it's French but it's definitely a neighborhood bar that happens to be French. Nice place. Haven't been in a long time, probably before we had the kid. T. and I liked our dinners. The kid tolerated hers enough to get dessert. Despite our best efforts, the kid got to bed late. Oh well. T. and I were in bed early.

My feet hurt

Wordle 694 3/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we had eggs and home fries for brunch. Shortly after that we went to an art-oriented party hosted by the kid's swim teacher. After that the kid wanted to play in a nearby park with a new friend she had made at the party, and we said, sure, why not.

In the afternoon, laundry and prepping for later activities. The kid spent the night at a friend's house while T. and I went to the fiesta, a parents-only school fundraiser. Not incredibly formal but closer to it than anything else. It was fun until around 11 PM or so but we didn't leave until 12:30 AM. Well, no one forced us to help out. Good for us, I guess.

Effing Friday

Wordle 693 3/6

🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Started the day with yoga yesterday. Exercise two, day seven, but I'll probably do another day or two of this because it has been spaced out so much. Biked the kid to school uneventfully.

Work was OK. In an objective sense it was easier/less busy than most Fridays we have that biweekly report. My teammate had an appointment in the early afternoon, so she and I switched jobs, and her usual role is less time-consuming than mine. On the other hand it was also less familiar, so I made a mistake our boss caught which was minor but even so is never fun, and my afternoon was busy too...

Right after logging off work I went to physical therapy. It went fine. New therapist. While in there T. called me but I didn't take it because I was busy. As soon as I left I called her back. She had a rant about a terrible meeting with the school administration. I'm mad about it too, for that matter, but I was getting it secondhand from her. As soon as we hung up, I realized I had left my sunglasses in the PT office. Fuck. And they had just closed for the weekend. 

I biked home fast, got cleaned up, threw together some snacks for the kid, and went to get her and T. Just that was tough due to traffic and coordinating with T., but we got there by the usual time. We dropped the kid off for gymnastics, which would be followed by a date for us. 

It was fun and relaxing. We went to Kaiju, a Japanese place we had tried to go to a couple times before. After that we had thought of seeing My Fair Lady at the theater nearby, but I checked and we wouldn't have time for it before the kid's after-hours event thing ended, so we just went for walks around the neighborhood and had Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert. 

I'm not sure why I'm complaining about this. Only one or two actually bad things happened; otherwise it was a typical day or even good. But I was in a bad mood all day except for actually while having our date.

Out of juice in every sense

Wordle 692 5/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I started the day with yoga (exercise two, day six) and got the kid to school uneventfully. "Uneventfully" often includes some drama in the morning getting her out of bed and ready on time, but nothing on the level of a tantrum and nothing dangerous on the road. On the way home I stopped by Trader Joe's really quickly for OJ and some other groceries. Just in case I was unsure, Florida Ave. still is terrible. 

Work was OK. One meeting I took notes at, a second meeting cancelled when the people we were meeting with didn't show up. 

I got the essentials done, there and in terms of personal chores, but I wish I had got them done earlier, or got to more of the "optional bonus" stuff. And I'm not even getting absorbed in the new competitive WoW stuff, I'm just dicking around with casual play or not-Warcraft-related-at-all stuff. Low executive functioning. But for what it's worth, in addition to all the problems here continuing and more work related to the renovation, I haven't been sleeping well lately. It's not T. snoring, or not just her snoring; we're at that awkward time of year when it's hard to tell how many blankets is too many and I'm just a light sleeper in general.

Once again, writing this out helps me realize that I need to go back on medication for ADHD or depression, two actual conditions I have been diagnosed with, or make lifestyle changes, or hunker down and prepare for just barely getting by between now and the summer when our schedule loosens up a bit, but mainly go easy on myself because no shit of course it would be hard to focus like this. 

Anyways, one of those "optional bonus" things I got around to was walking to the store for light bulbs and shampoo. I got home at the same time as T. We were in no hurry because she had gone home from school with a friend for a playdate instead of us. I figured I'd put the leisure time to good use and start prepping dinner, but around 6 a blackout put a wrench in my plans. Shit! Can't cook in the dark! (Well, we have a gas stove so we could if we really had to, but it's not ideal.) So instead we got pizza.

We got the kid around 7:45 and the lights came back on right after we got home. Perfect timing. So she had a shower and got to bed late and T. and I got to bed early.

Afternoon yoga and ice cream

Wordle 691 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Woo hoo.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school uneventfully. Maybe a bit earlier than usual. 

Work was fine. One meeting for school stuff around 9. I was just listening in but T. had a lot to say. Also one meeting about a technical document with a subject matter expert who had had a very confusing input/request for us, but after speaking with her it's not totally crazy. One work meeting in the late morning, but the team we were supposed to meet with asked to reschedule. Like the day before, I spent the whole day with two computers out, one for personal stuff and one for work. On a day when I have the house to myself this is okay, but it'll be a problem when T. is around, so I have at least a soft deadline to get it fixed.

In the mid-afternoon I did the usual chores and did the yoga. (Exercise two, day five.) Good for me for not skipping it, although doing it later in the day feels very different from in the morning. I also played a little Warcraft, of course. Around 4 I went to an event T. was curious about, at a local ice cream shop our city council representative would be at, but I couldn't stay long and he wasn't actually the main event, just making an appearance. At least the ice cream was good.

Getting the kid to her guitar lesson and meeting T. there was uneventful. After parking we ran into a neighborhood kid and they got to play for about half an hour, until dinner was ready. Chicken, Brussels sprouts, and yet more of that carrot salad. Over dinner I had a lighthearted-but-serious conversation, kidding on the square, sort of about how I used to be introverted and learned not to be but wanted to restart.

Blame the game?

Wordle 690 4/6

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I planned to do yoga after logging in like Friday, but had problems logging in. My personal computer couldn't do it at all. It seemed like the issue back in February, but I had no problem logging in on the corporate computer so it wasn't exactly the same. So I just worked on both computers all day, with my personal one for games and other personal projects and my corporate computer for actual work. Weird.

Biking the kid to school was fine. I kept meaning to get around to yoga all day but didn't. Work wasn't too busy and I only got the bare minimum done around the house. I'm tempted to blame World of Warcraft or my approach to it, the game is more fun than it was a year ago and a new season just started yesterday with new competitive content and if I had been absorbed by exciting new stuff it might have been understandable, but for three things:

• It shouldn't matter if the game is better, I still have to adult.
• The game was down for several hours to implement those same updates, so I had time to get stuff done whether I wanted to or not.
• When I finally did get in, I didn't spend my time on that exciting new competitive stuff, I just did the weekly chores and some general farming/world quests. 

The good news is, I didn't neglect work too much. Two meetings, both relatively demanding, plus follow-ups in a more or less timely way, went well.

Around 5, as the last minute for everything passed, I sent one or two final work emails and rushed out the door to get T. and the kid. We all went to her swim class together. It went well enough but took longer than usual because we met with the teacher afterwards for a progress report, because the kid will have a different teacher while traveling over the summer, and maybe join a swim team or something in the fall? Not sure yet.

Dinner was a stir-fry which I prepared while the kid serenaded us with her guitar practice, under protest. The stir-fry took longer than planned despite the fact that it was from a kit. I should have done a simpler sauce. I liked it but no one else did because it had mushrooms. 

While T. read to the kid, I did my PT more thoroughly than usual, so good for me about that. I got invited to do the new raid with my guild. I had to leave after 5 bosses and 3 attempts at the sixth. Not bad for day one but I have no idea what they thought of me, if anything, since I was muted to better watch Ted Lasso with T.

In addition to all the above, one more thing was weighing down on me was Mother's Day. I didn't have plans and worried it was already too late to make them. 

I didn't sleep well, maybe due to all of this, maybe for other reasons. This morning I made a Mother's Day reservation first thing - maybe not the absolute best possible, but a nice place we haven't been to in a while and T. approved of it - so I'm relieved to have that bare minimal requirement done, so that's nice. Too early to say how the rest of the day will go...

School parent meeting

Wordle 689 5/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Tough word.

Biked the kid to school yesterday. 

The day was slow and not that productive. Still tired from the weekend, maybe. Didn't get too much done at work. Personally, T. was around, so I had help with the usual chores like laundry, lunch, and cleanup, and made lunch for two. Conversation mainly focused on planning upcoming possible vacations. She does most of the work for that. I generally appreciate it, but (a) I feel like we're overdue for a break, I really appreciated the one thing she suggested that was simply an outing while the kid would be gone over the summer, and (b) with the home renovation we're planning, I think we shouldn't commit to spending anything big until that's more firmed up. 

We got the kid around the usual time, but it took a lot longer than usual because of a parents' organization meeting. Lots of stuff going on. T. is asking me if I want to run for an office. I'm not saying I shouldn't but I'm leery. Dinner was pizza at that meeting.

Coming home

Wordle 688 6/6

🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I got up in time to see the dawn, or close enough. The kid had expressed interest at one point but couldn't be budged when the time came. Her loss.

We broke camp as soon as we could. The kid was invited to a birthday party. We would have had to leave by 7 to get there at the start of the party and that obviously didn't happen. We actually got there at around 1 PM, but most of the party was still there, so she got to play with friends for over an hour. Cool.

We went home before too much longer, exhausted. We got cleaned up and unpacked. Dinner was tortellini and a new carrot salad recipe. It was OK. 

Camping thoughts

I'm enjoying camping more than I thought I would 5+ years ago. It's a family activity with enforced screenlessness, which is a struggle sometimes. It's also a challenge I can see myself improving at over time, which always feels good. It's literally an inventory management puzzle. We've been camping about five or so times, and every time the list of things we wish we had brought gets shorter and less important. The list from this trip: 

• The kid's sleeping bag, as already stated. Boneheaded but doesn't matter that much, because, after all, we're all in the same tent, we could have all been in the same sleeping bag if needed.
• A book for myself. My only entertainment was my phone, and the battery was limited.
  
• Outdoor entertainment. We brought books for the kid, and coloring/activity books live in the car, but something outdoorsy or physical would have been good. There was the playground but we couldn't spend all day there and she could happily collect seashells or play on the beach all day but that gets annoying to us. She wants us to carry the shells, and her clothes always get wet, more on that next.
• For a few minutes we thought we hadn't packed a spare outfit for the kid, but on further investigation it turned out we had, but she wore it to school Friday morning. So... pack two outfits for her? Or just communicate better and make sure she understands what the extra is for? 
• Not sure whether to count food stuff. We planned to borrow that stove from our friend before going, so we knew it would be there, but it wasn't ours, but we had a backup plan if it didn't work. We planned to eat out both nights - not exactly roughing it. We had breakfasts and plenty of snacks. 

But that's it. Other than those things we could have lived out of our car, and gone on several-mile day hikes if that had been the plan.

At the park

Wordle 687 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨

⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜

⬜🟨🟩🟩⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we had oatmeal for breakfast  made with a backpacking stove we borrowed from our friends. We spent most of the day within walking distance of the tent, on the beach collecting shells or at the nearby playground. Around 4 we took a short drive to the other nearby park in hopes that the wild horses would be there, because we hadn't seen any so far. We only saw them at a distance there, but saw more after we came back to the main camp to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at a place 15 minutes away. Roughing it, all right!

After we got back to the campsite we made smores around the fire, as is tradition. 

I didn't do formal physical therapy, but walking barefoot on sand felt sort of like it.

Work and also traveling

Wordle 686 4/6

🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜

🟩⬜⬜🟩🟨

🟩⬜🟨🟩⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I started the day with yoga, Exercise Two, day four. Good for me after a few days of skipping it. Today was a short workday, so unlike previous days I logged on to work before starting the exercises, and checked it in between positions. I'm ambivalent about that. 

• On the one hand, this exercise took over 20 minutes when I started and for all I know later exercises will take even longer; it's nice to be able to count that as part of the workday without it being completely dishonest. And some days it's no problem at all, there's just nothing I have to do first thing in the morning. 
• On the other hand, even when work isn't demanding, checking it disrupts the flow of the exercise and presumably reduces whatever meditative aspect there is to this. And some days work is demanding and trying to do yoga first thing would be problematic. I guess the simple answer is to not do it those days. But sometimes it's hard to tell...

Anyways, I biked the kid to school as usual. In the morning I finished that draft of an SOP. Good for me. This clears my short-term to-do list. There's always something to do, but I'm at the point of the professional equivalent of rearranging my sock drawer, at least until the next task comes in. 

In the later morning and early afternoon we finished packing for this weekend's camping trip. We left the house around 1:30. Later than planned, but I was busy and I guess T. was too. Got the kid from school and the drive was mostly uneventful. While making camp we discovered that we had forgotten THE KID'S SLEEPING BAG. Ugh. So after dinner at a restaurant I found nearby, we went to Wal-Mart to buy a new one.

Productivity or else

Wordle 685 4/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Once again, no yoga yesterday morning. My morning was again slightly busier and earlier than usual, and T.'s was much earlier; she'd have to leave the house almost an hour earlier than usual for a day trip. The kid got up early, excited about a field trip, but was well-behaved and read to herself until it was time to go. I biked her to school uneventfully.

Between what I hadn't done yesterday and what we have planned for the next few, I had no choice but to be productive. I buckled down and finished my draft of that document with PDF-to-Word artifacts around noon. In passing I mentioned it to my coworkers, and they took one look and commiserated with me, so I'm reassured that the problem wasn't simply my laziness. I also made a start on the third document that's been on my to-do lists recently. Didn't finish, but I think it's reasonable to hope I will today.

I also did a little shopping. To REI, for some camping gear for our upcoming trip we haven't got around to getting before now, and to the grocery store, for some essentials for the trip and also stuff for when we get back. 

When I got home I got everything camping-related out of the basement. Several armloads. Doesn't feel like roughing it when I look at what's going to go in the car. Then I did some laundry - not exactly needed for the trip, but a good idea. 

T. got home around 4. There was some confusion about when and where to pick the kid up, because one field trip (school trip to a nature walk) was leading smoothly into another (Girl Scouts trip to a nearby fire station), but the first one was getting back late due to traffic. In the end we got her at the fire station with minimal problems.

Dinner was steak with a Korean sauce and baked potatoes. I don't normally like just potatoes as the vegetable, but these came out well. While cooking and getting the kid cleaned up a bit, we also packed.

We all got to sleep a little earlier than usual. Long day all around.

Sore legs

Wordle 684 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I didn't do yoga in the morning because I had a busy morning, sort of: I had to get the kid to school about 20 minutes earlier than usual because I had volunteered to help out at a teacher appreciation event. Parents managed traffic during morning dropoff so the teachers didn't have to. Using T.'s bike without using the motor is definitely exercise, by the way.

Work wasn't too productive. That thing I didn't finish yesterday honestly was more complicated than I thought, it involves moving text from a PDF to a Word document which always sucks, but of course I had other distractions too.

Biked to a physical therapy appointment in the afternoon and stopped by the pharmacy for a precription of T.'s on the way back. That, plus the actual PT, is adequately tiring. If this amount of physical therapy - biking the kid to school with minimal ebike motor use, plus using my own bike for ~4 miles of errands, plus either PT or yoga - was routine, I'd be happy with and confident about my fitness. Of course, it isn't.

Dinner was pasta and glazed carrots. I tried something new with the carrots and it was edible but could have been better.

Warcraft patch day

Wordle 683 4/6

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yoga exercise two, day three.

Yesterday morning the kid was grumpy and made getting ready for school difficult. I thought she might have been worried about whatever that talk with her friend was the afternoon before, or mad at me for interrupting it, but she said she was just tired. Well, let's get to bed earlier then!

Biking her to school was uneventful. 

Work was fine. One meeting, fast. I got one document to the subject matter expert. On another one I didn't quite get it ready for that but I put significant time into it and really think I can get it back to them today. Can't ask for too much more than that. I also made some progress on a minor personal project.

I can't take too much credit for that, though, because Blizzard was releasing a patch for Warcraft, so the game was down for most of the day. I was only able to log on and do some basic intro stuff on two characters before I had to go.

I got the kid and T. at school and we drove to swim class. It was fine. After that, dinner at the nearby Chipotle, because of a fundraiser for the kid's school. It was OK. Unfortunately the kid was too busy playing with friends to eat there, so she begged to eat after we got home. We didn't get to bed early despite needing to go in early today. Uh oh.

Last night I logged on in Warcraft and was surprised to be invited to a raid by my guild. I rarely do anything with them, but I figured, why not? We breezed through the raid at breakneck speed, much faster than any pickup group. That one boss I've been stuck on? We got her in three tries. Maybe I should make time for guild raids after all.

Boring Monday

Wordle 682 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Started the day yesterday with yoga. Exercise 2, day 2. Biked the kid to school uneventfully. I'm experimenting a bit with the ebike and how the battery and motor work. Testing their limits, but the bike certainly is a workout when I don't use them at all. The best of both worlds? Don't know why T. isn't more enthusiastic about it. (Well, she's told me why she doesn't want to, she's still leery after her accident, it was longer ago than any I've had but also more severe, but I hope she gets back in the saddle eventually...)

Work was uneventful. I didn't get too much done. I have hopes about today, though. I did an adequate amount of my PT in bits and pieces throughout the day.

I got the kid alone because T. had a meeting. I was surprised to learn that guitar lessons conflicted with the martial arts class she signed up for in the extended school day program, so that's a scheduling hassle we'll have to figure out, but it went well otherwise. The kid was grumpy, both because of missing martial arts and because of some drama with her friends I interrupted.

The kid played with her friend from across the street in the afternoon as T.'s meetings continued. Dinner was pork chops and a salad.

Climbing the walls, but in a good way

Wordle 681 4/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I started the yoga book's exercise 2. A big jump in complexity. I made omelettes (taco omelettes, to use up the last of the ground beef from Thursday; weird and a lot of work but good) and home fries for brunch. It was a bit early because T. had plans at 10 to go shopping without us. We had a relaxing morning but still got the essentials done, including the kid's guitar practice. I even got the kid on her bike a bit during a lull in the rain.

In the afternoon we all went to this climbing wall gym. T. quickly decided she didn't have the upper body strength for climbing and just went to a stair-climbing machine in the gym area. The kid and I basically played on the climbing walls - all the easy courses and maybe one or two intermediate ones, and sometimes making them even easier on ourselves than the course indicated, but who cares? It was just for fun. I got a blister. It was expensive enough that we wouldn't want to do it regularly without a membership, and we're busy enough that we probably wouldn't get our money's worth out of a membership, but as an activity for a rainy day when our other plans were cancelled or already finished, it was a nice change.

Dinner was enchiladas, T.'s cooking. I put the kid to bed since I figured the night before was a wash.